My baby is 3 today!

Another little milestone today. My little baby, Keira, is 3 today. Gosh, how time flies. I remember her birth like it was yesterday. Waters breaking, bloody painful contractions, long labour (in comparison to Aidan, but not really in actuality). And now, she is a little girl, a proper little girl who loves pink, princesses, pink, ballet, pink, dressing up, shoes. Did I mention she loves pink? We will be having a few friends over on Thursday for a fairy princess party. Heaven help me.


Here she is with her big bro, modelling my latest FO. The skirt is the ruffles skirt from Barefoot Knits. Project specs:
Yarn - Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Truffles, Tea Rose and Pink-a-Boo.
Needle size - 4mm
Modifications - knitted in the round instead of flat, which meant I had to cast on 324 stitches for the ruffles. Urgghhh! But there was minimal sewing up!
I really like this book, which I purchased from a LYS in Denver. There are several patterns in the book which I would definitely make.

7 random things about me

I've been tagged! For the first time by Kim for 7 random things about me.

Rules:
1. Each player starts with 7 random facts about themselves.
2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their 7 random things and post the rules.
3. At the end of your post you need to tag 7 people and post their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Well, here is my list:
1. I love pickles. I like pretty much every kind of pickled vegetable
- from Europe - capers, cornichons, gherkins, olives, artichoke
- from Japan - pickled ginger, radish, cucumber
- from Korea - kim chee
- from Malaysia/Singapore - achar (pickled vegetable in a spicy, nutty sauce) and my grandmother makes the yummiest pickled chilli stuffed with raw grated papaya
and also pickled salted vegetable and szechuan vegetable, pickled mango.
There's at least 6 or 7 varieties of pickles currently in my fridge. Yumm....

2. We have a king sized bed. But I always sleep right on the edge of the bed. There's about a 3 foot gap between hubby and I. Actually, I like having a cuddle before bed, but there should be no touching after that! I can never understand in the movies when the actors are all cuddled up before and wake up all cuddled up as well.

3. I have a freaky second toe (actually both second toes are freaky!) They are affectionately called ET toes by my entire family. Luckily, this is a trait I haven't passed on to my kids.

4. I can eat most anything for breakfast - cake, curry noodles, leftover pizza. Anything! But I need a cup of coffee with it.

5. I am the most impatient person I know, except when it comes to dealing with the kids. I don't often lose it them. Hubby and my parents think that is so amazing!

6. I tend to do things on a "all or nothing" basis. Take knitting - I have purchased hundreds of balls of yarn and books and magazine in the last 5 years when I took up knitting again. Last year, apart from knitting books or childcare books, I read a total of 6 books. But this year, I have read loads (at least 2 or 3 a month so far).

7. I used to be a complete party girl, out most nights of the week. But now, I am so happy and contented to be at home, watching tv, knitting and reading blogs.

Now - I have to decide on 7 people to tag............................................

Feeling virtuous

Today I handed over the baby blanket and Anouk pinafore to my friend who will be attending her goddaughter's christening in 2 weeks time. I agreed to knit a baby blanket for her in November and only fiinished it in March/April. The baby was born in Oct. Boy, do I feel bad about it!! So bad that I knitted her the Anouk pinafore to make up for it!!! But now that they are both finished and handed over, I feel very virtuous and relieved. What's even better, she loves both of the items. Hurray!Two WIPs done - more projects to start. Oohh, what shall I start next?

I've also decided to show a picture of my orchid. I got it as a gift about 8 years ago - all beautiful and full of flowers. That was the only time it ever flowered. Since then, nothing! Suddenly, it's decided to flower again (well it has one flower!) but I'm so impressed and overjoyed by this prospect.

Ps - you can tell I'm not very green fingered judging by the dried stems and chewed up leaves!

Time

Where does the time go? Blink and suddenly it's 12 days since I updated this poor neglected blog. Much has been happening in my life. The builders and decorators are still here. Most of the building work is finished and they are just finishing up the last few bits. I'm having my fingers and toes crossed that this will be finished by early next week. The new carpets are arriving on Thursday and I can spend the weekend tidying up and making our house a home again. I can generally live in a messy environment but even I'm getting annoyed with the mess and untidyness. What's worse I can't find a thing!

The other annoying thing is that I've had the worst back ache for as long as I can remember. I've had the slight dull ache in my lower back for a few weeks. But that's suddenly changed to sharp shooting pains from my glutes to my lower back. I've booked in to see my physio and thankfully the diagnosis isn't serious. Just muscular pain caused by an unbalanced pelvis, made worse by a growing bump. (The bump is seriously growing - I must take another photo soon!)

Enough complaining. I do have some WIPs to show. I'm suffering from startitis. I have TONS of WIPs which need finishing but haven't got the motivation to do it. So I just started 3 new projects. Yay!


Anouk from Knitty in Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Truffle and Pink-a-boo.
Jaywalker socks in Opal rainforest Tiger. A little bit late to the party but enjoying it never the less! These socks are hopefully for my May Sock-a-month along.
Rusted Root from Zephyrstyle in Brown Sheep Cotting Fleece in Wisteria, for the Sexy Knitters knitalong. I probably won't get to wear this until next summer!